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Friday, February 8, 2008

As you probably know, denial is a common human phenomenon. People commonly avoid thinking about behavior that they repeat to their own disadvantage. Sometimes individuals grow enough to overcome the denial and change the behavior. A key to this is motivation. The source of the motivation is the hope that confronting the behavior will lead to some improvements in one's life. It is commonly accepted that without motivation there will be no change in the behavior, nor in the denial.

Now, zooming out to the big picture, we see that the behavior of most humans is causing the slow destruction of the biological earth. Furthermore, denial is in full bloom. Most humans avoid the awareness of this. Now, what's their motivation to become aware? Unfortunately, if an individual becomes aware of the phenomenon, itdoes not make his life any better. If anything, it may make him/herless happy, or more depressed, as the case may be. It does not helpthe planet to any significant degree either; that would takecollective action by billions, or at least by their thousands ofleaders.

This is not a new phenomenon; it was given a name long ago: "TheTragedy of the Commons". Originally, it applied to a local situation,such as a common area used for grazing. But now it applies to thebiological earth.